


Steady as a Star, Fickle as the Moon

by BreTheWriter



Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alcohol, F/M, First Time, M/M, Mentions of dubious consent, Sex, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-03
Updated: 2014-02-03
Packaged: 2018-01-11 00:53:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,944
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1166663
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BreTheWriter/pseuds/BreTheWriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The seven of them frequently get together for drinks and laughter, whenever they're on shore leave or furloughs, and usually there are potentially embarrassing questions. But some questions might be better left unanswered.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Steady as a Star, Fickle as the Moon

Obviously they can't do this often. Not when they're on duty, or going to be on duty within the next twenty-four hours. But whenever they're on shore leave, or an extended layover, they get together, the seven of them, for drinks and a game of some kind and laughter.

Tonight is one of those nights. In two days they'll be taking the _Enterprise_ out again, getting her primed, and on Monday they leave for their second five-year journey. So they're taking one last opportunity, sitting around the kitchen table in Bones and Jim's apartment. Even Spock has loosened up and is showing at least the rudiments of emotion as they laugh and tease each other and ask embarrassing personal questions that none of them even think about avoiding.

"Oh, I know. Describe your first time," Nyota says as she draws a new card off the top of the deck.

Jim's smile fades. "Yeah, let's not go there," he mutters.

Bones obviously doesn't hear him as he throws down his cards with a derisive snort. "My wedding night."

"You expect me to believe that?" Jim scoffs.

"Yeah, 'cause it's true," Bones shoots back. "My momma raised a gentleman."

"Hey, leave my mother out of this," Jim retorts, but he's smiling again, at least a little bit.

Bones shakes his head and takes a gulp of his bourbon before continuing. "Anyway, we left the ceremony an' headed to New Orleans for our honeymoon--I let Jocelyn talk me into takin' her to Mardi Gras. The person who had the honeymoon suite before us was still there--they'd had travel delays or somethin'--an' the only room the hotel had for us that night was a regular single. You know the standard-issue dorm beds at the Academy? The one in our room made 'em look like luxury king-size four-posters. But heck, we were newlyweds, we thought we'd try it anyway. Guess we got a little too enthusiastic. I fell outta the bed with her on top of me an' threw out my back."

"No!" Nyota gasps, laughing.

"Yeah." Bones laughs, too. "Spent the rest of the night in the ER. Lucky thing it wasn't too serious. We got it right the next night."

"How old were you?" Jim is genuinely curious.

"Twenty-two. Fresh outta college, just about to start med school."

"I was a wee bit younger 'n that," Scotty says. He tosses off the rest of his glass of scotch and pours himself another. "Twenty. My second year at the Academy. Lassie's name was Ellen Sommerbee. We'd been datin' since the start o' the term--she was in Engineerin', too. We had dinner, we went back to her dorm, we made out, one thing led to another. Nothin' quite so dramatic as your story, McCoy." He chuckles. "'Cept her roommate came home a wee bit earlier 'n we'd expected an' caught me right at the point of orgasm."

"Oh, God." Bones covers his eyes with his hand.

Scotty turns to Spock, who is seated on his other side. "Your turn, I think."

"I can tell you little about my first experience, as I do not remember it," Spock answers, his voice a little less emotionally controlled than usual. "Vulcans rarely do. _Pon farr_ tends to obscure the senses until it is satisfied." He turns to Nyota. "Would you say it was a good experience?"

"Best I've ever had," Nyota says, kissing Spock's cheek.

Sulu chokes on his soft drink--everyone always keeps some on hand for him, since he's allergic to alcohol. Jim tosses him a sympathetic glance, then turns back to Nyota. "And you have a good deal to compare it to?"

"A few," she replies with a smirk. "Not Gaila's record, but I was no prude, either. First time was her fault, actually. First year at the Academy. She dragged me to a party with her. You know how it goes--there was alcohol, there was dance music, there were a lot of horny guys. I wound up in bed with a guy named Topher Unger." She laughs. "I remember thinking when it was all over, 'That's it?'"

They all laugh. Spock tosses one of the cards in his hand. Sulu draws one, gives a small "ah," and lays out his cards, face up. There are a few groans and curses as the other six toss their cards down. "Yer shuffle," Scotty tells Sulu. "An' yer story."

Sulu gathers the cards. "This is kind of lame, but...okay. My eighteenth birthday. A few of my friends came over for cake and ice cream and that sort of thing. And then my parents went out, and there was an empty glass bottle..."

"Don't tell me," Bones says, laughing. "Spin the Bottle?"

"Worse. Seven Minutes in Heaven." Sulu grins sheepishly. "My turn to spin, I wound up with a girl I'd had a crush on way back in middle school. They set the timer and we went into the closet, and I _swear_ the door barely had time to close behind us before she yanked my zipper down and pulled out my dick."

Nyota shrieks with laughter. "Oh, my God! Guess it wasn't her first time, was it?"

"Not remotely. My God, the things that girl could do with her mouth..." Sulu shook his head as he shuffled the cards, but he was laughing, too. "The timer went off about the same time I did. We came out and the rest of my friends were laughing so hard they couldn't sit straight. Chitose--my twin sister--looked at me and said, in a deceptively innocent voice, 'Karu, dear brother, you _know_ the closet isn't soundproof, right?' I've never been so embarrassed in my whole life."

"I can imagine." Jim laughs.

Spock raises his eyebrows. "Mr. Chekov, I believe it is your turn."

"I pass," Chekov says promptly.

"Nope, no passing," Nyota says, refilling her glass. "Doesn't work that way and you know it. C'mon, even _Spock_ shared, and Vulcans don't _talk_ about that sort of thing."

Chekov twists his fingers nervously. "Zere was--it was a Christmas party," he stutters. "Zere was a man zere...he was wearing short sleeves, and his arms were completely tattooed. I was admiring one of zem from a distance when he noticed and came over to talk to me. I asked if he had many more, and he said yes, he did, zen asked if I wanted to see zem..."

"Oh, no." Sulu pauses in his shuffling and looks at Chekov with a look that's half amusement, half exasperation. "I know where _this_ is going. You idiot."

"I didn't--" Chekov begins to protest, then stops and swallows. "Well, maybe I did. But I was...I wasn't _drunk,_ exactly, but I was at zat point where stupid ideas seem brilliant. So I agreed and went back with him. And I must admit, ze tattoos were...impressive. Extensive." He blushes scarlet and looks down at his hands, avoiding everyone's eyes. "Zen he offered to give me one."

"Chekov." Bones puts down his glass with a sharp _thunk,_ obviously upset. "You didn't. Do you know how dangerous that is?"

Chekov's blush intensifies. Nyota shakes her head, smirking a little. "Where is it?"

"On my hip. It's ze moon and some stars." Chekov pushes away from the table and takes a couple of steps across the kitchen, hugging his waist and still looking away from everyone

An uneasy feeling begins to nag at Jim. They've known each other for seven Christmases now, five in deep space when no one went off the ship. Tattoos are painful--Jim should know, he has one himself, a fragment of poetry tattooed along his rib cage just below his heart. _Especially_ a tattoo done on a home kit and not in a licenced, sterile facility. A hip tattoo would make a person tender for a few days at the very least, probably limping.

Nobody else seems to share his apprehension. Even Spock seems amused. "Your actions were illogical, but alcohol does tend to have that effect on the brain. Did you receive this tattoo before or after you engaged in relations with this man?"

"Before," Chekov mumbles. "It--it was--"

"Chekov," Jim says quietly, cutting him off. "When was this?"

Chekov looks over at Jim, his expression vulnerable. "My second year at ze Academy."

A horrible silence descends on the room as, one by one, the others do the math. Chekov graduated from the Academy with them, but he was only seventeen at the time. And he's always looked younger than his age. He's twenty-four, still younger than Jim was back then, and he looks young enough that he can't go with anyone else to buy alcohol because clerks assume his ID is fake. He couldn't _possibly_ have been mistaken for anything other than jailbait.

Spock is the first one to speak, in a voice even more blank and emotionless than usual. "Fifteen. You were fifteen."

"Not quite," Chekov admits. "Not until ze end of January."

He turns away again, but Jim stands, crosses the room, and puts a hand on Chekov's shoulder. Chekov turns to look up at Jim, his eyes wide with unshed tears and full of apprehension and fear. Jim holds his gaze steadily.

"Remembrance Day," he says quietly. "The first one in my entire life that my mother couldn't be on-planet for. I was alone and upset. Walked to the next town, found a diner away from the festivities, sat at the counter to drink coffee and brood. Guy sat next to me--big guy, biker type, lots of leather and chains. I started flirting with him, not really seriously, not expecting him to take me up, but he did. Ended up offering to take me back to his place and show me a good time. Like an idiot, I agreed." He bites his lower lip. "I was thirteen."

Bones inhales sharply. Jim ignores him and continues. "And I didn't even have alcohol as an excuse. I was stupid and I let some guy I'd never met take advantage of me--repeatedly--and I missed a call from my mother. I tried not to let her know when I spoke with her next, but I think she guessed, and when she got home, she got the whole story out of me anyway." He squeezes Chekov's shoulder, lightly. "So you won't get any recriminations from me, kid. Just tell me one thing. Did he hurt you?"

Chekov's eyes fill with tears. "A little, but...I don't _think_ it was on purpose. And I never saw him again after zat."

Silently, Jim holds out his arms. Chekov's lower lip trembles, and then he moves into Jim's embrace, clutching the front of his shirt and burying his face in Jim's chest like a scared child. Jim holds him tightly, trying to comfort him without words. They both lost their innocence too young, and more or less unwillingly. And they were both lucky not to have been hurt worse. But Jim means what he said. He won't blame or lecture Chekov. What's done is done. They made their mistakes. The important thing is that they're here.

He feels arms around him, a body pressing against his back, and he knows without looking that it's Bones, comforting both of them but Jim more so. Sulu comes over almost in the same instant, copying Bones' posture but from behind Chekov, tears beginning to streak his face. Scotty, then Nyota, then even Spock come over, too, and add their support to the group hug, surrounding Chekov--and Jim--with something they've both been missing for a long time.

Love.

Family.

_Home._


End file.
